The Origin of Certain Granitic Rocks Occurring In Glamorgan Township, Southeastern Ontario

Abstract

<p> Glamorgan township in southeastern Ontario, is underlain by Precambrian rocks of the Grenville province. Prominent amongst these are migmatite, paragneiss, and granite gneiss, VJhich collectively form a series of rocks (the Glamorgan gneiss aeries). </p> <p> Field work revealed that this series is completely gradational from a geological aspect, and that the geological gradation is complemented by a geochemical gradation. <p> An explanation of these gradational relationships constitutes the main contribution of this study. The conclusions reached are that partial melting of paragneiss produced migmatite and a trondhjemitic melt, which later produced granitic (in the strict sense) derivatives. </p> <p> In developing the main conclusions, a number of subsidiary problems are discussed, chief of which are the possible metavolcanic or metasedimentary o'rigin of the paragneiss and the possible origin of so-called diorite as a differentiate of an alkaline gabbro. Metamorphism was concluded to be of Miyashiro's low pressure intermediate type. </p> <p> By the use of experimentally determined reactions and stability fields a metamorphic grid was devised, which led to the following upper limits of metamorphic conditions: 550 to 650°C and 3 to 6.5 kilobars total pre5sure. These estimates in turn lead to the following limiting geothermal gradients: 25 to 55°C per kilometre. </p> <p> The Glamorgan occurrence was found to share three characteristics with many other Precambrian terrains : 1. migmatisation and emplacement of granite accompanied high grade metamorphism; 2. an early sodium-rich granite was followed by a more potassic one; and 3. the more sodic granite is associated with a small amount of basic igneous rock. These three generalisations were used to formulate a possible model for deep crustal petrogenesis. </p>